I was looking at an old abandoned church just now, and thinking there was some minister whose life mission was, as he saw it, saving souls.
Do you not think many such people go to their graves deeply disappointed they were not able to do more?
More generally, do you not think many people who feel a mission in life die feeling their work incomplete?
None of us can really “save” the world, and it may not need saving. Maybe we all have our own destiny and those who are suffering suffer because it is their job in this life to learn to rise.
And I was thinking yesterday, if I look at things ftom a Buddhist perspective, is a pleasant Samsara to be preferred over an unpleasant one? Both are so inferior to a larger reality we cannot comprehend that they are functionally equal. This is the theory, in any event.
Maybe I, and you, should set our shoulders to our work—honestly, sincerely—but not in the end take ourselves too seriously, or overestimate both what is needed and what is possible